Direction: Benedikt Erlingsson
Country: Iceland
Icelandic-Ukrainian comedy Woman At War is another smart move, the second, from writer/director Benedikt Erlingsson, the one who conceived the memorable Of Horses and Men in 2013. He co-wrote this one with Ólafur Egilsson and also produced with a bunch of associates, including Lars Von Trier's regular choice, Marianne Slot. Besides peculiarly humorous, the film works as an environmental eye-opener and stands as a symbol of resistance to all the atrocities our planet is being subjected to.
Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), a middle-aged choir conductor and a secretive activist on climate change, hides in the mountain as a true warrior when in environmental mission. Solely armed with bow and arrow, she causes a massive outage that puts on hold important negotiations for industrial development between the Icelandic government and the Chinese. This is her unorthodox way to oppose a dangerous expansion of the aluminum industry in the country. While in the run from the authorities, she fights chasing drones with primitive instinct and proud honor. These particular scenes are smartly handled with resonant detail.
Seen as a heroine for some and an impish saboteur for others, this brave, controversial woman also learns that her long-forgotten application to adopt a four-year-old Ukrainian orphan was accepted. Her positive twin sister, Asa (double role for the talented Geirharðsdóttir), a devoted yoga teacher, will play a crucial role in the adoption process, but Halla must find a balance between the new responsibilities and her illegal activism.
This wildly improbable yet utterly engrossing tale packed with political connotations is very much recommended. Fully embracing the adventure, the director does a great job in designing a solid narrative based on currently compelling topics that gain extra force through funny and entertaining moments.
The young Greta Thunberg is real, whereas Halla is unreal. It’s so refreshing to see these women in action, playing their roles with fierce determination in the real life and in the cinema, respectively. Halla, a fictional sympathetic heroin of our times, symbolizes the deep concerns of conscious individuals.
